348 Noten on Lacock Church. 



I think it will be admitted that the design of the nave, "u-ith the 

 transept arches rising to the full height of a well-developed 

 clerestory, is a fine one. A vertical line, in the masom-y, between 

 the north transept arch and north clerestory shows that one was 

 built before the other. Probably the arch was buHt first. The 

 westernmost respond of the north arcade appears, at fii'st sight, to 

 have been partly removed, for the insertion of a doorway, and the 

 ujjper part to have been turned into a corbel and the shafts termi- 

 nated as pendants, and this to have been an alteration of the 

 sixteenth centmy, but I think examination ^ wiU show that it was 

 so built. 



Whatever the actual date of the work, it is very late, and it may 

 well be that the general design was decided on some while before 

 its erection, and that this is a modification of the design, to admit 

 of the doorway. The latter leads to a turret staircase, which ex- 

 amination, externally, will show to be later than the west wall of 

 the aisle. I consider it of the same date as the arcade. This 

 staircase leads to the leads of the north aisle and to the north side 

 of the roof of the nave, and also affords access to the tower. A 

 carving, on the exterior of the north clerestory, apparently represents 

 a man smoking a pipe, on the true interpretation of which work 

 Members of the Society may, if so disposed, exercise theu- ingenuity. 



The nave has a good waggon roof, of the Perpendicular period, 

 which was ceiled with boards, by the late Mr. Sotheron Estcourt 

 (then Mr. Sotheron), when he lived at Bowden Park. It was, I 

 believe, previously boarded only in the smaller panels, at the east 

 end, which was, no doubt, the original arrangement, and should 

 have been preserved, but the present treatment was probably, at the 

 time, considered an improvement. A tie-beam, at the east end of 



' It is, however, not easy to speak with certainty upon this point. If the 

 respond ever continued down, how was access obtained to the staircase ? Under 

 the cill of the doorway are the remains of an earlier respond, which does not 

 correspond with the line of the arcade, reaching a little further to the north, 

 but by no means far enough to meet the vaulting of the aisle. How the 

 latter was managed is not obvious, but I suppose there must have been a good 

 deal of added masonry to carry it. 



